Brands Taking Stands Weekly Newsletter

Do digital companies have a duty to curate content that some find alarming? That’s the current dilemma of social media businesses Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Instagram, and other platforms, which have self-defined as “agnostic” distributors—that is, neutral carriers not responsible for the content published through their channels and networks.

Do digital companies have a duty to curate content that some find alarming? That’s the current dilemma of social media businesses Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Instagram, and other platforms, which have self-defined as “agnostic” distributors—that is, neutral carriers not responsible for the content published through their channels and networks.

The story behind why RAICES, a small Texas-based nonprofit raising funds to cover the legal costs of Latino families separated by ICE at the border, was refusing a $250,000 grant from Salesforce.

Under the leadership of Marc Benioff, Salesforce has been viewed as one of the more progressive tech companies in a sector now widely criticized for its disengagement from social concerns. The fourth largest software firm (market cap: $79 billion) has established a strong reputation for both its innovative savvy within an innovation-driven field and for promoting social causes while doing so. “Many [of its] customers like to feel they are not only buying software but doing good for the world,” Keith Weiss of Morgan Stanley told The Economist.

Taking the “right” positions in business can be as difficult as foreseeing future growth and profitability at a time of maximum political uncertainty and market disruption. The hard work of getting it right is illuminated by some recent examples of major companies getting it wrong in areas of major concern.

The intersection of business and values has been the site of several collisions lately—some accidental, some accidents waiting to happen.

With their outsize influence on culture as trendsetters, and their large ecosystems, from raw materials sourcing to finished products, luxury fashion and beauty brands are well positioned to drive social progress through corporate responsibility.

Luxury brands and brands taking stands are topics not usually included in the same conversation. But in another sign of a world turned upside down, top tier fashion labels are now talking CSR and sustainability. From materials to packaging, from supply chain to environmental footprint, luxury consumer goods companies are updating their strategies to ensure long-term viability.

In the past, “The CEO rule was basically keep your head down, stay out of complicated issues, because there were opinions on both sides of any issue,” Lawrence Parnell, program director at the Strategic Public Relations Program at George Washington University told the Wall Street Journal.“It’s no longer a question of if, but where, when and how to engage on these issues and what type of topics to engage on. These are new challenges and things CEOs and boards never had to deal with before, so they are struggling.”

Back in the day, corporate strategy meant defining a business mission and describing how those goals were to be reached through business practices. Today, setting a viable strategy means including many factors once considered outside the scope of traditional business planning. Brands are taking stands on multiple issues, from public, cultural questions (climate change, immigration, gun violence) to internal issues (diversity, ethics, harassment, gender pay gap).